Tilghman Island Day

October is a fantastic time to sail the Chesapeake. This four day trip takes advantage of that opportunity before this year’s sailing season ends. The trip centers on Saturday’s events on Tilghman Island, MD – Tilghman Island Day. This is a local seafood festival that celebrates the crab and oyster industry heritage of the area. Bring your camera and your party attitude!

We will be chartering from Haven Charters out of Rock Hall, MD and will be working with them to have all boats checked out on Thursday afternoon. After that, crew may load provisions and personal items. All provisions should be on board Thursday night as there will not be time to pick up last minute items on Friday morning. After the boats are ship-shape, crews will meet at a local restaurant for grub and grog

Friday is a day of sailing – embrace the day! We’ll get an 8:00 AM start to allow time for the thirty two mile sail to Knapp’s Narrows Marina at Tilghman Island. Crews may choose to eat breakfast while underway or have a quick breakfast before casting off. Lunch will definitely be while underway. Skippers and crews will then expertly navigate the narrow channel that brings us to the marina. If you arrive early, be sure to stay near your boat to observe the other approaching boats and be ready to lend a hand with docking. The current in this channel can be swift and challenging. Not to worry, we have local knowledge of the area’s currents and shoals. Slips are reserved for Friday night through Sunday morning, so that we can enjoy the day-long Saturday festival. This will also allow plenty of time to re-provisions for things that might have been forgotten on Thursday evening. Plan on eating at a local restaurant on Friday night, perhaps with some Sailing Club members local to the area.

Saturday is for enjoying the land after Friday’s seafaring adventure. The Tilghman Island Day festivities officially begin at 10:00 AM and end at 4:30 PM, giving plenty of time to discover the culture of the crabbing and oystering life of years past. The events start off with a rowboat race, one of the few opportunities for visitors to show off their skills. This is followed by a “jigger throw.” A jigger is a special anchor that was tossed off the side of the sail-driven skipjacks to maneuver about the oyster beds. One can quickly realize that long tosses of the jigger provided a commercial advantage in how quickly a boat and crew could harvest the oysters in an area. This helps explain the intense competition between the locals in this event.

Later, the local fishing boats partake in docking contests and workboat races. Now would be a good time to think about the powerful appetite that’s been building and find one of the churches and firehouses selling food as part of this firehouse fundraising event. The menus are varied but the theme is seafood, so you will find crab cakes, soft-shell crab, oysters, fried clams, and more traditional luncheon fare such as BBQ chicken, hotdogs, burgers, and fries. Don’t forget to try the oyster shooters and wash them down with some beer to prepare for the music at Kronsberg Park, where the music is made for dancing.

Then it’s back to serious business. The crab picking and oyster shucking contests always capture the full attention of the crowd. It will be up to each boat to decide what they do for dinner on Saturday evening, and there will be lots of time for socializing at the marina.

After a leisurely breakfast on Sunday, we set sail back north for a yet to be determined secluded cove. Weather conditions will determine our choice of western or eastern shore for rafting. Bring hors d’oeuvres to share for an evening of socializing.

Monday morning we return to Rock Hall, enjoying the sail and lunch along the way, arriving by mid-afternoon to return the boats, unload and, hopefully, meet ashore to say goodbye.

The cost of the trip is $395.00 per person (Skippers - $214.00). Trip price includes charter fees, insurance and slip fees for two nights. Fuel, provisioning, pump-out, and other incidentals are additional and will be handled by each boat’s crew. Also not included is a five dollar donation that is collected by the Tilghman Island Day committee as we walk across the bridge onto the island on Saturday morning. A $100.00 deposit is required to hold your position. Please make your check payable to The Sailing Club, Inc. and mail it, along with your completed reservation form, to Bob Rainey at the address below. Reservations will be processed beginning April 13, 2012 with a random draw of those received by that date. All reservations received after that date are on a first-come, first served basis. The balance of $295.00 will be due September 4, 2012.
The Club’s standard cancellation policy applies for this event.

A pre-trip meeting will be held approximately two weeks before the trip, at a time and place to be announced. All participants should make every effort to attend in order to meet your crewmates, plan your meals, and make travel plans.

Please note that sailing conditions are dynamic, that your safety, and that of your crewmates, depends on your good physical health and agility.

Trip Leader

Assistant Trip Leader